A&M linebacker offers insight into Kines' replacement

Hodges offers insight into Kines' replacement

Published 6:30 am, Wednesday, January 20, 2010

COLLEGE STATION — Linebacker Michael Hodges has made his mark — and earned nine starts — at Texas A&M by working hard and following orders.

When Hodges spent two years at the Air Force Academy and its prep school before transferring to A&M, he was surrounded by teammates who played much like him. Disciplined and well-trained, but hardly NFL bound.

“You don’t have the four- or five-star athletes pouring in at Air Force,” Hodges said Wednesday. That’s exactly why Hodges is excited about A&M coach Mike Sherman’s defining hire of his tenure — that of defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter from Air Force.

“The type of discipline that coach DeRuyter teaches can exceed somebody who can run a 4.4 in the 40,” Hodges said. “But you do get those kinds of (4.4) guys at A&M. So with coach DeRuyter coming in here and teaching that type of discipline to a bunch of kids who already are all-stars — it’s a deadly combination.”

DeRuyter, 47, will be named as A&M’s new defensive coordinator following the approval of his contract by A&M’s board of regents today. When TCU was preparing to play Air Force midway through last season, Horned Frogs coach Gary Patterson described the Falcons’ aggressive 3-4 defense as one that “hunts together.”

Last August, DeRuyter described his ideal defense to the Colorado Springs Gazette: “We want to have guys that are chomping at the bit to go rip someone’s head off.”

Air Force finished 11th nationally in total defense, and intercepted Houston quarterback Case Keenum six times in a 47-20 Falcons victory in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

A&M linebacker Michael Hodges (37) spent a spring under Tim DeRuyter at the Air Force Academy.

A&M linebacker Michael Hodges (37) spent a spring under Tim DeRuyter at the Air Force Academy.

Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle

A&M linebacker offers insight into Kines' replacement

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Hodges, a senior, spent the spring of 2007 around DeRuyter at the academy. Hodges was injured so he didn’t practice for DeRuyter, but he did observe the new defensive coordinator who also was an Air Force letterman in the early 1980s.

“You immediately saw the change,” Hodges said. “He brought an excitement that really sparked the defense. It was visible — and sure enough within a year they had a much better season.”

In 2006, the year before DeRuyter arrived at Air Force, the Falcons ranked 78th nationally in total defense. DeRuyter improved that mark by 67 pegs in his third season. For their part the Aggies have ranked 114th and 105th nationally in total defense the past two seasons under the recently-retired Joe Kines.

Hodges said when he and teammate Trent Hunter were cleaning out their lockers following the 6-7 Aggies’ 24-point loss to Georgia in the Independence Bowl, “We just looked at each other and said, ‘We’re not going through another season like this.’”

“We had the numbers on offense,” Hodges said of A&M’s No. 5 national ranking in 2009. “We’ve got to help them out on defense.”

And that’s where DeRuyter, coupled with the return of NCAA sack leader Von Miller for his senior season, come in.

“We’ve got enough guys who know the ropes,” Hodges said of the Aggies returning nine starters on defense. “Ignorance or being naïve is no longer an excuse. The development that we’ve had over the past six months and now with what coach DeRuyter brings – the combination of the two can be lethal.”